"Legitimacy, War, and the State: A Framework for Understanding Legitimation Strategies in US Foreign Policy"

Do social norms play a role in policy maker’s foreign policy choices? What methods or strategies are effective in generating sustainable public support? In contrast to certain theories that conceive of international relations as purely divorced from social norms – be they international or domestic - I argue that the characteristic of legitimacy is critical to understanding how states construct and pursue their foreign policy. Using a methodology of historical review I examine four primary qualities of legitimation theory: Concern, Audience, Effort, and Reception; using the test case of the Americanization of the Vietnam War (1961-1965) this study will compare and contrast two Structuralist accounts of legitimation strategies: World Systems Theory (WST) and Structural Realism (SR). I argue that Structural Realism is inadequate in its grasp of legitimation within American foreign policy history, able to make some solid predictions on the international dimension but crippled in virtue of its de-emphasis of domestic politics. In contrast, this study argues that WST is able to incorporate a more comprehensive understanding of legitimation due to its inclusion of domestic politics as well as its modeling of ideational and social norms. However like SR it remains crippled due to its lack of First Image analysis which I argue plays a critical historical role in explaining the Americanization of the Vietnam War, even if both theories lack the theoretical capacity for it. This study ultimately strengthens the broader hypothesis reflected in Legitimation Theory that domestic and international audiences are critical in how countries construct and sustain their foreign policy, particularly through the use (or lack of) ideational norms that can transcend the domestic/international divide. Beyond analysis, I recommend that policy makers proactively seek to understand the role of domestic legitimacy and the need to effectively legitimize domestic audiences on behalf of a given foreign policy goal.